You are here

Rights Defenders

The open letter (in Chinese) says that on September 19, Liu Ping ( 刘萍) and Wei Zhongping ( 魏忠平) , rights defenders and independent candidates for the People’s Congress in Xinyu, Jiangxi, were detained, strip-searched, verbally abused, and beaten by the local police in an 11-hour-long ordeal. The...

On August 17, 2012, domestic security police disrupted a gathering of the Beijing Christian house church Divine Love Group of the Beijing Christian House Church. Xu Yonghai (徐永海), the head of Divine Love Group, was taken into a police vehicle for questioning, and an elder sister was prevented from...

In his letter (Chinese only) to the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Justice, lawyer Chen Wuquan (陈武权) explains why he wanted to defend Chen Kegui, the nephew of blind legal advocate Chen Guangcheng who is facing charges of intentional homicide as a result of defending himself against intruders who...

On August 3, 2012, Henan rural rights activist Hong Maoxian (洪茂先) was released from prison after serving a one-year sentence on conviction of “obstructing official business” and “destroying public property.” Hong’s prosecution arose following a clash between police and villagers in Fushan Township...

Following the release of an investigation report by Hunan provincial authorities which confirmed activist Li Wangyang’s (李旺阳) death as suicide, ten lawyers from mainland China and Hong Kong sent an open letter to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (Chinese only). The lawyers...

Beijing-based disabled rights defender Ni Yulan (倪玉兰) was twice imprisoned for fighting against forced eviction. In April 2012, both she and her husband, Dong Jiqin (董继勤), were convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles.” Ni was also convicted of “fraud” and was sentenced to two years...

Xiao Guozhen, a Beijing lawyer, was summoned for a police interrogation, which she thought might be because of her lead role in forming a group of attorneys to investigate the purported suicide of activist Li Wangyang. She issued an emergency notice stating that she might be taken away and...

In accepting the 2012 Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literature in Warsaw, Poland, Liao Yiwu spoke exclusively about Li Bifeng. Li isa poet, a character in one of Liao’s books, and Liao’s former prison mate who was imprisoned twice following the 1989 June Fourth crackdown on the Democracy Movement...

In his poem (Chinese only), Guo Yongfeng, a Shenzhen-based rights defender—who considers himself a “new fighter for democracy”—expresses his admiration for a veteran who devoted his entire life to the cause of democracy in China as well has his anger towards the authorities which had brutally...

April 10, 2012, Beijing based disabled rights defender Ni Yulan (倪玉兰) was ordered to serve two years and eight months in prison and pay a fine of 1,000 yuan ($159) for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” and “fraud”. Her husband, Dong Jiqin (董继勤) was also sentenced to two years in prison for...